FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE April 11, 2014
CONTACT:
Truth Wins Out! Illinois Becomes Fifth State to Reject Change Therapy Legislation Education Campaign from Ex-Gays and Equality And Justice For All Key in Victory
Springfield, IL -- Late yesterday afternoon, the Illinois House voted 44 to 51 to reject HB 5569, a bill that would have prohibited minors with unwanted same-sex
attraction (SSA) from receiving Sexual Orientation Change Effort (SOCE)
therapy from a licensed mental health practitioner. Illinois became the
fifth state in a row to reject this legislation, following Maryland,
Minnesota, Washington, and Virginia, whose legislatures also voted down
similar bills in 2014.
“It’s clear that even the most progressive states do not want to pass
laws that take away the rights of individuals when the foundation of
such legislation is based on lies and misinformation,” commented
Christopher Doyle, President of Voice of the Voiceless. “There is not
one research study published in the scientific peer-reviewed literature
that has studied the outcomes of minors undergoing SOCE therapy – any
attempt to ban clients from receiving help for unwanted SSA is pure
political propaganda from gay activists.”
The Illinois Family Institute (who worked hard with ex-gays from
Equality And Justice For All, the only non-profit organization dedicated
to preserving the rights of ex-gays and clients with unwanted SSA) to
educate legislators in the state to reject this bill, wrote the
following of the bill’s lesbian sponsor, Kelly Cassidy: “In a remarkable
display of rhetorical excess, Cassidy argued that minors who desire to
change their unwanted SSA through counseling are ‘horribly and
humiliatingly abused.’ It boggles the mind that Cassidy would expect her
colleagues to believe that every counselor who helps minors with
unwanted SSA ‘horribly and humiliatingly’ abuses their young clients.
Further, Cassidy expected her colleagues to believe her without any
conclusive studies to support such an outlandish claim.”
But this type of behavior is commonplace for gay activists. For
example, last year a transgender activist in New Jersey claimed she was
sent to a “conversion therapy torture camp” in Ohio that used
electroshock therapy to zap her from gay to straight. An investigation
published at WorldNetDaily.com found the entire “testimony” was a hoax
taken from a 1997 movie starring drag queen Ru Paul. Similarly a witness
testifying in a January committee hearing in Washington said that a
licensed therapist forced a child to watch pornography while in an ice
bath so that the client would associate sexual arousal with pain.
However, when questioned after the hearing, the woman refused to provide
the name of the therapist and when it happened; nor was she willing to
do any research to help uncover whether, if it had in fact happened, it
was a licensed therapist.
“Legislatures around the country are now waking up to the reality
that ex-gays are a fact and gay activists’ stories of ‘therapy torture’
are fiction,” commented Doyle. “We applaud the many lawmakers in
Illinois who met with ex-gays, heard their stories of change, and
refused to listen to the lies of anti-ex-gay activists like Wayne Besen,
who is now headquartered in Chicago and failed miserably in his own
liberal-dominated state to get this legislation passed. It goes to show
that truth really does win out – when ex-gays speak up, politicians listen.”
###
Voice of the Voiceless is the only anti-defamation
league defending the rights of former homosexuals, individuals with
unwanted same-sex attractions, and their families. For more information,
visit: www.VoiceoftheVoiceless.info
|